Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6
1836-03-01
A mild, wet day. I went to the Office, and afterwards occupied in Diary and making arrangements for the investment of Mr. Johnson’s funds. Called to see Mr. Welles, who finally concluded to pay the Draft on the day it became due. I then went to see the Cashier of the Merchants’ Bank and procured from him an advance of the sum necessary to meet the wants of the Mortgagor. Thus I settled that business. Mr. Walsh called in and held a conversation about things in general. Nothing else of any consequence.
As I was returning home, met Mr. I. P. Davis who called me in to look at the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A good many very curious papers they have, and they take more pains with them than I suppose. My worthy relation, Mr. Felt is a lover of these matters and pursues them with great avidity. The MSS are the most remarkable part of the collections. Of course I could do no more than barely glance at what he showed me.1 But I lost my time for Livy by it.
Afternoon, writing to Mr. Slade which I followed up assiduously in order to finish the first paper tonight. I also read to my Wife from the Duchess d’Abrantes, which is really a very valuable book of contemporary Memoirs.
Although JA had been elected to membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1800, thus initiating the unbroken connection of the Adams family with the Society that has continued from that date to the present, there is no indication that he was ever an active member. JQA’s election to membership followed in 1802, but his almost continuous absence from Boston during those periods of each year when the Society’s meetings were held apparently prevented any extensive participation in the activities of the Society until the later years of his life. His more active participation, in point of fact, was about to commence at the time of the incident here recorded. CFA’s present visit to the Society’s rooms is obviously his first. His election to membership did not occur until 1841, from which time his lifelong interest dates. He was for many years vice-president; three generations, thus far, of his immediate descendants have served as presidents of the Society.
Rev. Joseph Barlow Felt, after a period in which he undertook to bring the State’s records into order, in Aug. 1835 had been elected by the Society to compile, with the Librarian, a catalogue of the Society’s books, pamphlets, and manuscripts. In Dec. 1836 he would become the Society’s Librarian. Felt was the husband of AA’s niece, Abigail Shaw, and brother-in-law and executor of William Smith (“Athenaeum”) Shaw, on each of whom see Adams Genealogy.
The connection of the various members of the Adams family with the Society can be followed in the successive indexes to the Society’s
Proceedings.
For an account of the stages by which the family’s archives became domiciled in and ultimately the property of the Society, see JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 1:xxx–xxxiv